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This article should be on "Don't reading list". "Start With Great People" is wrong advice. If you knew who are great people you would be rich anyway. Also "Mak

by tlogan 10y ago

This article should be on "Don't reading list". "Start With Great People" is wrong advice. If you knew who are great people you would be rich anyway. Also "Make Something People Want" is stupid - maybe one of worst advices. You will know "what people want" is only and only after you succeed. The only and only thing which matter is: "do build it". Right now. No books, no reading blog posts, no HN will help you. And if you are reading this post - you already failing. :-)

hga 10y ago
"Start With Great People" is wrong advice. If you knew who are great people you would be rich anyway. Totally disagree, especially since there can be great value in putting together a team of "great people", even if you do little else besides give them the tools they need to "get shit done", which is how he boils down the selection criteria. I myself did that in starting up a student run computer center back in 1980, when computer resources were dear; I myself didn't have much time to contribute to it due to Real Life putting me in a full time job, but having procured everything (machine and peripherals, room, a few dollars for the needed electrical work) they did almost all the rest. Similarly I've saved at least one company by recognizing a "human resource" need and finding and selling the position to that person (LMI was the first example). This stuff doesn't self-organize, especially since we're not talking about the domain of rent seeking. And there's a whole technique of customer development that you evidently are not aware of that at least gives you a fighting chance to "succeed". Without following something like it, it's pure luck, often just being at the right place at the right time (think Jobs, SV and the dawn of more polished microcomputers, or, heck, Ken Olsen being a grad student working on a Whirlwind successor). You say "do build it", but do you have any inkling "it" is anything anyone wants??? If it's something that requires more talent or time than you can devote to it, how do you get others to lend you their time and/or money to "build it", and if you have no idea if anyone wants it, how can you morally justify wasting the resources of others?

by tlogan 10y ago

hga 10y ago

"Start With Great People" is wrong advice. If you knew who are great people you would be rich anyway. Totally disagree, especially since there can be great value in putting together a team of "great people", even if you do little else besides give them the tools they need to "get shit done", which is how he boils down the selection criteria. I myself did that in starting up a student run computer center back in 1980, when computer resources were dear; I myself didn't have much time to contribute to it due to Real Life putting me in a full time job, but having procured everything (machine and peripherals, room, a few dollars for the needed electrical work) they did almost all the rest. Similarly I've saved at least one company by recognizing a "human resource" need and finding and selling the position to that person (LMI was the first example). This stuff doesn't self-organize, especially since we're not talking about the domain of rent seeking. And there's a whole technique of customer development that you evidently are not aware of that at least gives you a fighting chance to "succeed". Without following something like it, it's pure luck, often just being at the right place at the right time (think Jobs, SV and the dawn of more polished microcomputers, or, heck, Ken Olsen being a grad student working on a Whirlwind successor). You say "do build it", but do you have any inkling "it" is anything anyone wants??? If it's something that requires more talent or time than you can devote to it, how do you get others to lend you their time and/or money to "build it", and if you have no idea if anyone wants it, how can you morally justify wasting the resources of others?